Research on a novel and improved incremental conductance method

Aiming at the problem that the steady-state error and response speed cannot be taken into account in the traditional fixed-step incremental conductance method, combined with the current–voltage (I–U) characteristic curve of photovoltaic (PV) panel, this paper proposes a novel and improved variable-step incremental conductance method. The proposed tracking strategy of maximum power point (MPP) analyzes the I–U characteristic curve, and divides the I–U characteristic curve into four sections, each section has a different variable step size, thus realizing the variable step size control of global four-section. The traditional incremental conductance method and the improved incremental conductance method are simulated under the environment of Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results show that when the light intensity changes rapidly, the novel improved incremental conductance method not only has the advantages of no oscillation in steady state and fast response speed, but also improve the efficiency of photovoltaic power generation, which better realizes the fast and accurate tracking of MPP.